What was the Glasgow School?
Glasgow School Unlike Italy, where regional schools such as Florence,
Naples or Venice are very different, yet each has an inner coherence, there
have been only three regional schools in Britain: Norwich, Newlyn and
Glasgow, all of them short-lived. The Norwich School was dominated by two
major artists, Crome and Cotman, and therefore has a stylistic unity, but the
Newlyn School and the 'Glasgow Boys' (they were all young) had far less in
common. Both were influenced by the naturalistic plein-air landscapes of the
Barbizon School - some of them had been trained in Paris - by similar
works of the Hague School, as well as by Bastien-Lepage. The Glasgow
Boys were well acquainted with these pictures because several Glasgow dealers
took a lead in exhibiting them. In England there is a parallel with the NEAC:
Whistler was an influence on both. From about 1880 the Glasgow Boys
exhibited together and had a great success with a group exhibition in London
and Munich in 1890, but by c.1895 the disparate tendencies of the group became
evident: Lavery (1856-1941), for example, moved to London and became a
society portrait painter. The other main members (there were about twenty in
all) were Sir D. Y. Cameron (d.1945), best known for his etchings of Scottish
scenery, Joseph Crawhall Jr. (d.1913), who specialized in animal studies. Sir
James Guthrie (1859-1930), James Hamilton (d.1932) and Sir George Pirie
(d.1946), who painted scenes from Scottish history. Few of them have become
famous, but in their heyday - Glasgow produced the most avant-garde painters in Scotland, far exceeding any working in Edinburgh, which
remained always more conventional. It was standard practice among the Glasgow painters to work in the studio in the winter, but to paint their landscapes
en plein air in the summer. Some visited Paris, and though it is possible to
discern some influence from the d. Impressionists, their own style was sufficiently
well established that similarities are more in outlook than in practice. Glasgow
had a good art school, and in 1907-9 the sensational new library wing by C. R.
Mackintosh increased the confidence of the Glasgow artists, while the animus
of Edinburgh caused it to shut its doors against them. For this reason, many
migrated to London - Lavery, Petrie, Orchardson (a perceptive genre painter
of society manners) and McWhirter - and found a more receptive audience
south of the border. Unfortunately, World War I blighted the careers of some
of the original group, and some did not survive it, so that it had no continuing
role.
Source: The Penguin Dictionary of Art and Artists (Penguin Reference Books)
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